


Hidden

by Sly_Helador



Series: Sly's writing class [7]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Unfinished, first chapter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23812618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sly_Helador/pseuds/Sly_Helador
Summary: Actually, they are gonna open up Hidden completely and expose us to the others.
Series: Sly's writing class [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1469705





	Hidden

**Author's Note:**

> Hirai’s pronouns: Ze/zir; they function the same as she/her

Wagons come lumbering down the crowded street. People crane their necks to take a peek inside. Others stand to the sides with young children yanking on their hands and clothes, hoping that this harvest was good. The street and congregation of people lead down to the city square.

Tables with boxes and crates stacked precariously tall sit empty with building codes printed on the side. Hirai stands to the side of one of the crate towers staring at one in particular. Zir housing code looks like all the rest but stands out to Hirai anyway. The crate right below Hirai’s is also getting stared at. This one by Kanoka, standing arm in arm with zir. 

The wagons finish their path towards the square and settle in a wide circular formation. The crowd moves as one, each person knowing their movement by muscle memory at this point and goes about their business. Hirai leads the charge to the stack of crates that ze had been carefully watching for the past while. Like a clock ticking in time that only it hears, the people move. Gears that shift in exact moments leading a tune that everyone moving swayed to. 

A march appeared and timings were down to perfection. Workers and volunteers tossed and handed boxes to family unit representatives. Hirai’s usual was there again this week.

“One worn box that must have holes in it from your stares coming right up, Hirai,” said Chasm. His family unit was assigned to this job almost every week. They had been doing this long enough that Chasm could request any position he wanted and of course chose the one where he could annoy Hirai the most. 

“Very funny Chasm. It was more funny this week than it has been in months. Your delivery has gotten exponentially better. Keep it up and I’m sure I’ll laugh next week. Now hand it over,” Hirai thrust zir hand out to receive the crate. 

Chasm kept it right above zir reach for a couple more seconds before lowering it and snickering under his breath. Hirai rolled zir eyes and turned away quickly. 

“Now, now Hirai, no need to be so uptight. And look at people when they are talking to you!” he called back.

Kanoka quickly grabbed her crate as well and shuffled behind Hirai. They followed the flow of people leading to the outline of wagons. A wide berth was given to the group of people in the center. 

They followed the set path and helped the workers load up their crates. Each worker knew everyone that was collecting the weekly supplies and chatted as quickly as they could just like Chasm. 

Towards the end of the line Hirai glanced back at one of the previous wagons. It held zir favorite treat, a papay fruit. It was sweet with a hard outside and juicy center but the trees were tough to grow. All food was rationed out because growth had been disrupted again. But with another glance back, Hirai turned back around and headed straight for the wagon. 

Passing out the fruit was Chist, one of Chasm’s family unit. They snorted in the same way as Chasm when they saw Hirai marching forward, Kanoka right behind. 

“Chist please let me have a couple more papays. You know they are my favorite,” ze asked while shaking the crate enthusiastically. “I can see you have a few left, please?”

“Sweety you know I can’t. We give everyone as much as the committee decides to divide them up,” they apologized back. As the last of the reps got their share, the workers packed up the remaining food and supplies. Chist themself started to package the fruits by type back onto the wagon they came on. 

“Come on Chist please. You know I don’t ask for much,” Hirai started begging. Ze moved in front of Chist and the fruits, dragging against Kanoka who was trying to pull zir back by zir clothes. 

“Hirai they said no, and someone on the committee is looking at us. Can we go now?” Kanoka asked once she got Hirai’s attention. 

Indeed one of the committee members' attention was on them. They were frowning at the display in front of them. The committee member turned back around and briefly spoke to another before sauntering over to the wagon stall. 

Hirai rolled her eyes in annoyance. These committee members seem to enjoy reprimanding zir over any little mishap. Just because ze likes to explore the city that ze lives in does not mean that ze plans to do anything bad but these committee members seem to disagree. 

The committee members' robes flowed around each step that they took just like the people around them. Everyone knew that they needed to get out of the way of any committee member with their mind set. Even through the mask covering their eyes, everyone could tell what this member’s attention was on. 

“Hirai, are you causing a disturbance again? I thought we agreed last time that you would graciously accept what everyone else in this city does. The people of this city agreed long ago that all supplies would be evenly distributed because they were so scarce,” the member reprimanded. They then turned their attention to Kanoka, still hidden behind zir. “Kanoka you must take charge in instances such as this; Hirai needs your guidance.”

The member turned back around to join the others in the center of the square and gave out a parting, “Thank you for your time,” which Hirai mouthed along to.

With one last glance at the papay fruit, Hirai sighed and turned to return to zir housing unit with Kanoka. 

“Those committee members, always getting up in my space. Why can’t they just leave me alone, huh?” Hirai said out loud to no one in particular. “ And who are they to decide how many papays I can have. There were still a few left that no one claimed. Why not let anyone who wants the leftovers take them?”

“You know why. We need to leave leftovers at the farms so it doesn’t look suspicious that all the food disappears every week. We need to stay hidden. The salt keeps us safe.

‘We need to stay hidden. The salt keeps us safe.’ Words that everyone hears, says, and thinks. The mantra of Hidden, the city in the salt flats. No records are kept on why the forefamilies had decided to hide their city away from the rest of the world but it had been kept like that for many years. 

“Yeah yeah I’ve heard that all before.”

The rest of the walk was in silence. Kanoka one step behind as always and Hirai stewing over the committee as ze does every week on supply day. Once they got to their units, they said their goodbyes and separated for the time being. 

Once all the supplies were put in their place, Hirai left through the window closest to the roof. Ze climbed up as much as ze could and stretched out on top. Ze took a deep breath and looked to the far side of Hidden where the salt turns to a slimy goo that would only let people out in a specific way. 

The world outside of this salty, cramped city must be beautiful. There probably is not a word that could describe it. Ze had heard of grass that grew to feet taller than zir and water that flowed so fast it was white not from salt but from foam. People that had skin and hair colored in strange ways and animals that did more than provide food. Not that ze had ever seen an animal; those were kept outside of Hidden since there was not enough space. 

Hirai spent any moment ze could exploring Hidden looking for anything interesting. Anything new. There were only grey salty walls and grey salty people.

Those dumb committee members who thought they knew what was best for Hidden’s people. The crops were being destroyed without any knowledge and the water supposedly was starting to be tainted by blood. 

Hirai lifted zir hand up and covered the sight of the exit with it. Ze closed zir hand into a gentle fist.

Ze needed to leave. Ze needed to see the other cities, the other people, the other life. This place was smothering in all the wrong ways and the committee either did not see it or did not care. 

Hirai stood back up on the roof and looked down to the people below. They knew not what they were missing at all. 

The climb back down was as simple as going up. Ze grabbed the crate from the morning and left to collect Kanoka again to return them. 

Kanoka was sitting in front of her unit. Her eyes stayed unfocused until Hirai waved a hand in front of her face. Startled, she gasped and jumped up.

“I was waiting for you. Come on we gotta return these before it’s too late. You know the punishment,” Kanoka scolded softly with eyes still lowered towards the ground. 

“We can return these but right after I’m going to see the committee. It’s high time that I told them a piece of my mind and they listened. They are going to start letting people leave Hidden,” Hirai heard Kanoka gasp behind zir but pondered something even better. “Actually, they are gonna open up Hidden completely and expose us to the others.”

**Author's Note:**

> Can you tell that before I wrote this I got super into Naruto? Hidden villages anyone? I was told by my mom that this was super confusing but idc I had fun writing it. This is the 'first chapter' of a novel I planned for my writing class, so there is stuff in here that unless I went into the world and made it boring no one would probably understand.


End file.
